체홉의 <벚꽃 동산>과 이호철의 <닳아지는 살들> 드라마 시학의 소설적 변주

Abstract

This paper aims to comparatively analyze Anton Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard” (1903) and Lee Ho-Chul's “Wearing Thin” (1963) in terms of theme and structure. Lee Ho-Chul's short story “Wearing Thin” was inspired by Anton Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard”, applying Chekhov's dramaturgy to its fictional narrative which focuses more on mood than on action or conflict. These two works depict the lives of the aristocracy and the middle working-class to show risky situations in a transitional society where modernization and industrialization were progressing rapidly. “The Cherry Orchard” is based on late 19th century and early 20th century Russian society where the existing autocracy was in a crisis and capitalism was developing fast. The background of “Wearing Thin” is South Korean society where such tragedies as the division of territory, the Korean War, the April (4/19) Revolution, and the May (5/16) Military Coup d'état happened. Both works share the same theme: ruin of the family and lack of communication among family members, which are artistically expressed through the sound motif- a string snapped and an iron hammered (“bang thump bang thump”). This sound with no incoming source produces an anxious, sad mood throughout the works, and it represents an uncertain future, groundless life and unidentifiable external power that overwhelms the individual's life. But, the characters’ reaction to the sound-symbolic representation is different; people in “The Cherry Orchard” do not actively respond to the sound, but rather get isolated from it. By contrast, the heroin in “Wearing Thin” actively responds to the “bang thump bang thump” sound and keeps trying to subjectively interpret them. It clearly shows that the characters in the two works have different attitudes towards the crisis that they face.